Vicky Cornell: Her Family ‘Still Looking for Answers’ on Chris Cornell’s Death After ‘Botched Investigation’

We are coming up on the one year anniversary of Chris Cornell's death this Friday (May 18), but though time has passed, the singer's family is still looking for answers.

Cornell's widow Vicky has questioned the official story on the vocalist's death, and according to the Detroit News, she feels that the medical examiner conducted a "botched investigation." Cornell feels that there are holes in the narrative provided, that have led to false accusations and online attacks on Cornell and her family.

“This has left me and my family still looking for answers, but at the same time, set off this whirlwind of conspiracies,” she explained. “Some of the people are just fans looking for answers, but some of them are conspiracy theorists who have said the most vile things to my children and me."

Cornell points to the autopsy report stating, "Drugs did not contribute to the cause of death," calling the statement completely misleading. "The poor choice of phrasing has misled the public to believing he was of sound mind and body,” she said. “So some conspiracy people think if Chris wasn’t impaired, he would never have killed himself, and so he must have been killed — and then they start getting into the rest of the holes."

Cornell has done her own research on the case, and one of the experts investigating, Dr. Richard Cote of the department of pathology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, wrote in his summary that drugs likely played a part in the singer's death.

“There is clear evidence of drug ingestion leading to impaired behavior. The drugs that were found — and their levels — strongly indicate doses that would impair mental and motor function individually, but have much more powerful effects when found in combination," wrote Cote. "Under the circumstances, I conclude that terminal events occurred while under significant mental and motor impairment.”

Cornell also stated that a bottle of Prednisone found in the singer's bathroom was not tested by the medical examiner. “My husband had no intention of leaving this world,” she said. “He did not have control of his faculties due to toxicology, perhaps even exacerbated by other factors, including a head injury, which was referenced in two EMS reports that were left out of the autopsy report.”

She went on to add, “If you add it all up, he was on these prescription drugs that should have never been prescribed. It caused a relapse ... I think it was, unfortunately, the perfect storm, a combination of factors that made him go manic. Had the medical examiner looked at all these factors, maybe they wouldn’t have concluded it was a suicide in just an hour and a half.”

Vicky says the continued speculation and conspiracy theories have led to plenty of hurt. “We’re human beings. This is real life. We’re not characters in some film. I lost my husband. My children lost their father. We’re in a lot of pain, and we have to deal with these people coming after us. If the autopsy report was thorough, I believe some of this could have been avoided,” she stated.

A public vigil will be held this Friday (May 18) at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles to mark the one year anniversary of Cornell's death. For those who are not able to be there in person, Vicky Cornell suggested filming testimonials about the impact and effect of Cornell's music.